UK: The Monday Briefing - Christmas Quiz 2014

Our 2014 Christmas Quiz offer a wide-ranging test of
knowledge, from the most popular activities during conference calls
to the price of Christmas puddings. We hope you enjoy
it.

1. The Louvre is the world's most popular art gallery with
9.3m visits in 2013. How many visits did Disney's Magic Kingdom
in Florida clock in the same year?

a) 18.6m b)
11.7m c) 6.2m

2. Greece's economic woes have resulted in sharp cuts to its
public spending and its deficit/borrowing this year is lower than
those of most major economies in the euro area. According to the
IMF, Greece has the 15th highest level of borrowing in the
developed world, amounting to 2.7% of GDP. Which developed economy
has the highest level of borrowing this year?

a)
US
b) Japan c) Spain

3. London's Heathrow airport was used by 72.4m passengers in
2013. How many passengers used Beijing's Capital airport last
year?

a) 83.7m b)
68.9m c) 58.2m

4. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Singapore and Paris as
the world's top two most expensive cities to live in this year.
Which is the least expensive city according to them?

a) Mumbai b) Kathmandu
c) Bucharest

5. Which country has the greatest percentage of its population
aged under 14 years old?

a) Canada b) Niger c) Vietnam

6. Which country has the largest rural population – people
living outside cities – as a proportion of its total
population?

a) Russia b) Italy
c) Brazil

7. In which of these countries does it take the longest time to
register a company?

a) Singapore b) Brazil
c) New Zealand

8. A 2014 survey reported in the Harvard Business Review and
carried out by Intercall, the largest international conference call
company, looked at what people do during conference calls. Which of
the following activities did people most admit to doing while on a
call?

a) Exercising b) Playing
video games c) Visiting
the restroom

9. Match the following emerging market economies –
Hungary, India, Russia, Ghana, Nigeria – to the following
events that occurred in 2014:

a) Decided against introducing the world's first internet
tax, following protests?

b) Did not ship any oil to the United States over a monthly
period – the first time this has happened since records began
in 1973, due to the shale oil revolution in the US?

c) Held its first training exercises with combat dolphins,
deployed to find underwater mines?

d) Became the fourth nation to place a satellite in orbit around
Mars on a budget of just $72m?

e) Had its president dispatch £1.7m in cash in a plane to
Brazil to pay the country's World Cup squad over unpaid
wages?

10. Three of the following were added to the basket of goods
used to calculate the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the United
Kingdom this year, while three were removed from the basket. Which
were added?

a) Canvas shoes b) Flavoured milk
c) Gardeners
fees

d) Wallpaper paste e) DVD rental internet
subscription f) Netflix

11. Credit default swaps CDS) provide investors with a way of
insuring against a country defaulting on government debt. Which of
these three countries is the riskiest to lend to, according to CDS
spreads?

a) Greece b) Iraq c)
Russia

12. In a blind test by a panel of experts conducted by Which?
Magazine, Morrisons M Signature Jewelled Christmas Fruit Pudding
achieved the top score of 85%, well above Harrods at 73% and
second-from-bottom Fortnum and Masons at 48%. The Fortnum and
Masons 454g St James Christmas Pudding costs £10. How much
does the top-rated Morrisons pudding cost?

a) £2.99 b)
£3.99 c)
£4.99

13. Technological and productivity improvements have led to
improving quality and much lower prices for an array of consumer
goods. In 1950 a Freed-Eiseman 16 inch TV cost $795 in the US,
roughly a quarter of the average annual salary. According to
official data, adjusted for improvements in the quality of goods,
how much has the price of a TV fallen in the US since 1950?

a)
98% b)
81% c)
65%

ANSWERS: Based on market data at 11th December 2014

1. Answer: 18.6m. Disney's Magic Kingdom is the world's
most popular theme park with 18.6m visits last year, almost twice
the number to the Louvre. Disneyland Paris also attracted more
visitors than the Louvre.

2. Answer: Japan. Japan has the highest level of borrowing in
the developed world this year, amounting to 7.1% of GDP. It is
followed by Spain, the US and the UK, all borrowing more than
Greece this year.

3. Answer: 83.7m. With the rise of international trade and
a globetrotting middle-class in emerging Asia, the centre of global
aviation is moving eastward. Beijing's Capital is the second
busiest airport in the world, used by 83.7m passengers last year.
Nine of the world's top 20 busiest airports are now in Asia.
Heathrow comes third after Beijing's Capital and Atlanta's
Hartsfield airport, which remains the busiest in the world although
passenger numbers declined last year.

4. Answer: Mumbai. Four of the five cheapest cities are in the
Indian subcontinent and Mumbai is the cheapest city in the world. A
loaf of bread costs a ninth of its price in Paris and a litre of
petrol less than half. Easily available labour and the resultant
low wages, along with government subsidies, ensure prices of basic
commodities remain low here. London is the 15th most expensive city
in the world and the seventh in Europe.

5. Answer: Niger (50.1%). Out of the 20 "youngest"
countries in the world, 18 of them are in Africa. This year UNESCO
released a report, which forecast that by 2100 almost half of the
world's children would be African, marking one of the most
dramatic demographic changes in history. In contrast, countries
such as Germany and Italy face a demographic challenge, as they
have much older populations (27% of Italians and Germans are aged
60 or over).

6. Answer: Italy (31%). Italy has a relatively large rural
population for a developed country. One of the great demographic
trends of our time is the migration of people from rural to urban
areas. Rural populations are shrinking particularly fast in
developing countries, as people migrate to growing cities in search
of work and better pay. The World Health Organisation estimates
that over 1m people every week migrate to urban areas, with the
world's "urban population" now at 54% of the total
population, up from 34% in 1960.

7. Answer: New Zealand (0.5 days on average). Ease of doing
business is a key indicator of a country's progress. Many
emerging markets, despite rapid growth in recent decades, still lag
on many competitiveness indicators, including this one.

8. Answer: Visiting the restroom (47%). We thought this
study highlighted the importance of face-to-face meetings, but the
authors of the report also pointed to the dangers of scheduling
unproductive meetings. Rob Bellmar, Intercall's executive vice
president of conferencing and collaboration, told Harvard Business
Review that the fault is not in our attention spans, but in our
approach to work. "Part of the problem comes from too many
meetings," he said. "This leads people to confuse
activity with productivity."

9. Answer: a) Hungary. b) Nigeria. c) Russia. d) India. e)
Ghana

10. Answer: Netflix, flavoured milk and canvas shoes were all
added to the CPI basket in the annual reshuffle of the
"shopping basket" that the Office for National Statistics
uses to gauge changing spending habits and lifestyles of UK
consumers. Fruit snack pots, men's clothing hire were also
added to the 2014 list.

11. Answer: Greece. According to the CDS market, Greece still
has the highest risk of defaulting on its debt, having been close
to default a number of times since the euro crisis broke. Russia
recently moved in to the top 10 riskiest countries following the
effects of the crisis in Ukraine and falling oil prices. It is now
rated by the CDS market as being at greater risk of default than
Iraq.

12. Answer: £3.99. The Harrods pudding costs £12.99
for 454g. The judges described the Morrisons pudding as,
"Simply majestic" and commended its pleasing nutty
texture, light citrus notes and great depth of flavour.

13. Answer: 98%. Technological innovations, the move to digital
components and the offshoring of production have led to huge
improvements in audio-visual quality, a widening of choice, and at
lower prices.

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